This invention relates to a method for alleviating the leaching of arsenic and/or mercury from solid waste materials.
Some solid waste materials contain arsenic and/or mercury (either in elemental form or as compounds). Examples of such waste materials are spent sorbent materials (which have been used for removing arsenic and/or mercury impurities from gas streams). When these solid waste materials are disposed of in landfills, As and/or Hg impurities may gradually leach from these materials and contaminate the ground water. The present invention is directed to alleviating the leaching of arsenic and/or mercury impurities from solid waste materials so as to make their disposal in landfills environmentally safer.